Murree water scheme: Court bars provincial govt from abolishing project

The committee observed that the project’s cost would increase to Rs7b against an initial estimate of Rs2.5b.

RAWALPINDI:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday stopped the Punjab government from terminating the Rs4.5 billion Murree Bulk Water Scheme project. The Punjab chief secretary was given until December 2 to submit his comments.

The order was passed by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi of the LHC Rawalpindi bench while hearing a petition filed by Sardar Saleem Khan, a former nazim of Murree.

The project was initiated by the previous provincial government in 2006 to provide clean drinking water to the hill station from Jhelum River.

In his petition, the former nazim challenged the recommendation of a Punjab government’s steering committee, which had declared the project as unfeasable.

The committee, comprising PML-N MNA Shahid Khakan Abbasi and a leader of the ruling party Raja Ashfaq Sarwar among others, had declared the project as unfeasable on the grounds that the AJK government could object to construction of a dam on the Jhelum River.

The committee had also observed that the project’s cost would increase to Rs7b against an initial estimate of Rs2.5b.

The petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Sardar Ashfaq Abbasi, argued that the finance secretary had put a dissenting note on the recommendations, saying that the project is near completion and no objections have been made since its initiation in 2006. The lawyer said the AJK government had already given an undertaking about not raising any objection, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.